Why Are the Lakers Awful?

The 2014-15 Los Angeles Lakers are on track to finish with the worst record in their storied history, and no, it's not all down to injuries.

The Los Angeles Lakers are the worst they've ever been.

In truth, the Lakers--Minneapolis or LA--have never been this bad. In 1957-58, the Minneapolis Lakers won 19 games in a 72-game season, which amounted to a winning percentage of 26.4 percent. With 27 wins in the 2013-14 season, Mike D'Antoni's Lakers won 32.9 percent of their games to claim the qualified title of worst team in Lakers' history since the team moved to LA.

While D'Antoni's Lakers looked like a hopeless mess, Byron Scott's 2014-15 Lakers have been worse. With only 13 wins in 51 games, LA is currently winning only 25.5 percent of its games.

Considering the 2014-15 Lakers have lost 13 of their last 14 games, this team appears intent on claiming the unqualified dubious title of worst Lakers' team ever. The Lakers are awful, and this team winning more than 20 games this season would be an achievement at this point.

Why Are The Lakers So Awful?

Pointing to Kobe Bryant's injury or overuse may be the easiest way to explain the drop in play, but his inability to shoulder the load for the past couple seasons does not alone explain how poor the team has been. Steve Nash's bad contract and waste of a roster spot have particularly hurt the team in the past two seasons, too.

While the team may not publicly admit that Bryant's contract was a mistake, the truth of the matter is that both Bryant and Nash have handicapped the team with bad contracts and minimal playing time due to injuries.

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Add in the freaky level of injuries in the 2013-14 season and the broken leg of promising rookie Julius Randle on opening night of the 2014-15 season, and the Lakers can easily point to injuries to help explain why the LA Lakers look like the Washington Generals these days.

Injuries, however, fail to fully capture the true breath of the Lakers' free fall. The failed Chris Paul trade deserves the shortest mention, as the Lakers cannot take blame for the league stepping in and canceling a trade that should have been executed. That happened.

Possibly even more important than the failed trade, the Lakers allowed Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol to walk away without getting anything in return in each of the past two off-seasons. For a team short on assets, the Lakers allowing two of the NBA's best big men to walk for free unlocked the perfect combination of pathetic play.

Trading Howard would have been harder to imagine than trading Gasol, but the thought did come up during a difficult season where Bryant and Howard butted heads. Management should have been in tune with Howard's growing frustrations over the Lakers' offensive system under D'Antoni and understandable favoritism toward Bryant.

Gasol's name became synonymous with trade rumors in his final seasons with the Lakers, and that the Lakers allowed the Spaniard to leave without receiving even a single draft pick is difficult to justify.

With both Howard and Gasol leaving the Lakers asset-less and stuck with a couple of bad contracts, the Lakers' front office latched onto keeping financial flexibility. Financial flexibility became the Lakers' primary asset. Rather than finding and signing players that could help the team for the next two to four seasons, the Lakers brought in players on one-year contracts or claimed players on expiring contracts via trade or waivers: Jeremy Lin; Carlos Boozer and Tarik Black.

When asking why the Lakers are awful, the blame falls primarily on the Lakers' front office. The Lakers' front office made the trade for Nash, gave Bryant his contract, allowed Howard to leave and let Gasol go for free.

What's Next?

The Lakers have hit the bottom.

Nash's contract will expire at season's end, so the Lakers will have even more spending power. Whether they exercise that power to sign middle grade non-superstar players to multiyear deals remains to be seen. The more the Lakers spend on proven talent, the better the Lakers will be in 2015-16.

With Randle expected back fully fit to start the 2015-16 season and LA expected to land a top-five draft pick in 2015, the Lakers should begin to rise once again. With Bryant suffering season ending injuries three seasons in a row, Bryant's swan song could be a farewell tour or his final season could end early due to injury. Either outcome appears equally likely at this junction.

Regardless, the team and the fans have already experienced a couple years without Bryant, and every outing for the soon-to-be 37-year-old is appreciated rather than expected.

The 2015-16 Lakers will be built around youth, not Bryant.

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